online

Never move house. Just don’t do it. You pay a fortune to own the same old stuff in a different place. And then, to cap it off, your better half decides that you need a new washing machine when everyone knows it’s perfectly adequate just to take your smalls down to a riverbank and whack them with a stick.

It’s not often we’re treated to a bona fide good news story in retail, but Hilco’s rescue buyout of HMV most definitely qualifies. First, Hilco have an excellent track record with these things and, secondly, hopefully some of HMV’s amazing team will be retained to help paddle the boat back upstream. I worked at HMV for a short time and, take it from me, some of the people there are the most extraordinary, passionate and gifted folk working in retail today. We wish them the best of luck.

For years, monetisation has been the elephant in the room for online communities. On the one hand, all that moderation, content creation, love and – let’s face it – server capacity doesn’t pay for itself. On the other hand, you didn’t set this community up to make money, and no one joined to make you rich.